Godwin Oluponmile, an Osun State-based freelance writer, has told FIJ that he lost a $1,500 payment after the United Bank for Africa (UBA) opened an invalid domiciliary account for him in March.

Oluponmile had written an article for Accessibility Checker, an Israeli-based platform that reviews websites, when he was told he needed a domiciliary account to receive his payment in dollars.

“Because I already had a UBA savings account, I visited the bank’s Ilesa branch in Osun on March 15, to open a domiciliary account. Five days later, after the account was opened, I sent it by mail to Yotam Flohr and Danny Tricther, co-founders of Accessibility Checker,” Oluponmile said.

After the Israeli company paid the agreed $1,500 fee to the Nigerian writer, UBA would later tell him that the same account it opened for him was now ‘invalid’.

“They sent the money and UBA acknowledged the incoming transaction from Danny Tricther,” Oluponmile told FIJ.

“But UBA said they wouldn’t direct the money to my account number because my ‘account number is invalid’.

“I asked how this was possible, but they said maybe Danny made an error while inputting my account number. As a result, they told me they’d need to reverse the transaction to Danny.”

He said he relayed the message to the company but Tricther, the sender, denied making an error.

“He even sent him a proof of the transaction with a screenshot its SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication),” Oluponmile said.

The screenshot showed that on March 28, the money sent was from Bank Leumi Le Israel through Citibank in USA to a UBA unit in Lagos. An attempt was then made to transfer the cash was heading to his account that is domiciled in Ilesa..

“I approached the bank branch a second time and demanded to know why the same account I opened in their branch would turn up as invalid. Surprisingly, told me they did not have answers for me,” Oluponmile said.

“I then contacted Dele Omotosho, Customer Service Manager, UBA Ilesa branch, for help, but he said UBA had refunded the money back to Accessibility Checker.”

With this information, Oluponmile approached the Accessibility Checker but its founders maintained they had not received a refund.

“They then asked their bank for information but the Bank Leumi Le Israel wrote back, saying it had not received any funds and had not heard from Citibank, the intermediary,” the writer said.

FIJ contacted Damilola Fadairo, Oluponmile’s account officer, for comments, but she said the bank was handling it and that same information had been communicated to the writer.

When FIJ asked her if was a normal occurrence to have a duly opened account show ‘invalid’ status during a transaction, she did not give any response.

FIJ also contacted Dele Omotosho but he maintained that the bank had returned the money. He however refused to comment on how the account became ‘invalid’.

Oluponmile requested for UBA’s copy of the SWIFT transaction history to prove it had sent the money back to Israel but he told FIJ that the bank was yet to respond.